Carrie Severino: Latest Kavanaugh allegations a shameful attempt to reignite baseless smears
Author of 'Justice on Trial' Carrie Severino weighs in on the controversy over the New York Times story.
The New York Times has taken heat from both sides of the aisle for walking back its now-revised allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Sunday after swift backlash -- with even MSNBC’s liberal morning show and “The View” taking issue with the Gray Lady.
Late Sunday, The New York Times walked back an explosive report about a resurfaced allegation of sexual assault by Kavanaugh from his college days. The piece by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, adapted from their forthcoming book, alleged there was corroboration of an incident in which Kavanaugh, as a college student at Yale, exposed himself to a female classmate at a party.
However, The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway -- who reviewed an advance copy of the book – flagged a glaring omission and the paper eventually revised the controversial story after being lampooned on social media over the gaffe.
The update included the significant detail that several friends of the alleged victim said she did not recall the purported sexual assault. The newspaper also stated for the first time that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed, and has made no other comment about the episode. As a result, some on the left and right came together and united against the paper.
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Conservative strategist Chris Barron told Fox News that The Times “has abandoned any pretext of journalistic integrity,” and the revised Kavanaugh story is the latest example.
“It is clear that The Times is indistinguishable from dozens of other left-wing blogs. The White House should treat them -- The New York Times -- the same way they would Vox or Slate,” Barron said.
GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the outlet “disgraceful” as a result of the story.
“The New York Times left out critical evidence – all to push their own narrative,” McDaniel tweeted.
While conservatives and journalism purists were outraged, liberals and never-Trumpers weren’t thrilled with the Gray Lady either.
MSNBC’s anti-Trump host Joe Scarborough said it “was a stunning decision to leave that central fact out of an article filled with damning accusations” and pondered if the revision would have occurred without Hemingway pointing out the omission.
“One can argue that the failure to remember, given her intoxication, is not dispositive. One can’t argue, however, that that fact didn’t need to be in the Kavanaugh story from the outset,” NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik tweeted.
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Mediaite columnist John Ziegler called The Times a “once universally respected paper of record” that has allowed “biased reporters” to smear Kavanaugh.
“There is absolutely nothing ‘new’ or legitimately credible in the piece, and there are key omissions that should humiliate The Times and, in a rational world, would never have allowed the story to run as it did,” Ziegler wrote.
ABC News’ “The View” co-host Abby Huntsman even declared that the latest gaffe would help Trump in 2020.
“We’re in this place where there isn’t a difference, many times, between tabloid news and a New York Times article. And that, to me, is really sad and frankly it plays right into the president’s hands,” Huntsman said on Monday. “New York Times, congratulations. If the president gets reelected you are helping him get there.”
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Other critics across the political spectrum took to Twitter to bash The Times:
Fox News’ Gregg Re and David Montanaro contributed to this report.
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